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When I read posts like some here in this topic and others, and I think back to the workload I endured in my earlier career, I worry about some of you and about us as a profession overall. I haven't made nearly the amount I could have for whatever talents I have, but I have made a concerted effort for a healthier work-life balance and am happier because of those choices. This work can be extremely rewarding, but I believe that it shouldn't be at the expense of our health and well-being. I wish you all well, hope that you recover quickly, and are able to enjoy some quality time away from the office. I also hope to see you here in the off-season as we continue to work at a less hectic pace.

From a CPE talk I gave back in 2023; (staged) me under my desk after fully reviewing the disaster I had inadvertently accepted as a new client. You may find amusement in this, @mcb39.

When you see someone's name pop up on caller ID and your heart drops, fire them. Life's too short to be miserable.

I read somewhere that the errors in these phishing emails are intentional. They are not looking for sophisticated educated people to respond because they are less likely to fall for what they are selling. Instead, they want people who read carelessly or are not very educated. The errors in the emails help them to weed out the people unlikely to fall for their scam.

I'm getting old and spicy, and now, when people tell me something preposterous (or give me some crazy tax rule they 'know'), I look them straight in the eye and say, 'Did your hairdresser tell you that'? Stops them cold. Literally. You should try it. They look at me dumbfounded for a minute, then they usually chuckle, and then they remember that it's a 'fantasy tax scenario', and we never speak of it again. You have to be over 50 to pull this off, but I've now made the cut, and I use it every time.

Immigrant tax reporting aside, this agreement violates the sanctity of the privacy bond between taxpayers and the IRS. We voluntarily give them our most private data and that of our household members and they lock it up so tightly that most of their own employees can't access it. In my Master's course I learned that IRS can share your data with NO ONE, the only exceptions being suspected terrorism and money laundering. We used to joke that you could list your occupation as Hit Man or Bank Robber and the IRS would keep it a secret. Breaking that bond can further dent the agency's tarnished image. ICE is demanding this disclosure to get immigrants' addresses. I think the tax return is not a good place to look. People move, have PO boxes, use someone else's address to get their mail because their own box is insecure, still use Mom's address because they're away at school or she always handles everything. I'm sure all of us have had a client or two who suddenly notices that the address we've been using for five years has the wrong street number of spelling.

Well, that is one way to lessen the number of tax returns the IRS has to process, justifying the force reduction. s/s Super Sarcastic - funny not political. I hope you think it is funny. If Judy kicks me off the board I won't have anyone to talk to at all.... Tom Longview, TX

I'm with you two. I just copied a doc I had showing the points needed. I made a few notes, wrote my name on top and put NA in a few places. That was my WISP. Like mcb39 said, if it's not good enough for them, so be it. Hey, it's a WISP.

You are speaking directly to me. As a warning. And I thank you because I needed to be reminded. I've been doing taxes since 1986 or 1987. On my own since I think 1990? I have brain fog right now but it's close. Many, many of my clients are about to be "fired." It's best for all of us. After almost 40 years? Time to put myself first.

i totally agree. I can remember working 11 hour days and drinking lots of coffee. I have been gradually cutting back the last decade and now I just work mornings

Only if you keep a contemporaneous log

Could be bad advice from the preparer; could be bad listening by the taxpayer. Just recently I had a client call me about a transaction which we had discussed 3-4 months ago. At that time she told me what a friend had told her about the taxation of the capital gains. I explained to her why that advice from her friend was dead wrong and I then gave her the correct information. On this subsequent conversation she repeated the bad advice to me, and when I corrected her she said "But I remember you telling me that on our last conversation." Fortunately I had made notes and more-or-less read them back to her. Either I'm a very bad communicator, she's a very bad listener, or (most likely) she only remembers what she wanted to hear rather than what was said.

I think these partnerships that investment advisors purchase, especially within IRA’s, must pay really generous commissions. After all, SOMEBODY needs to benefit from all this mess created by the k-1’s.

Got this "request for help" this morning. It's not even good enough to be AI-generated.

I thought everyone knew that putting your password on the side of the monitor wasn't safe, you have to put it under your keyboard where it can't be seen. LOL.

Like Margaret, it's just me here. Anyone trying to access my stuff would need to get into my house - past locks and alarms - then into my computer (password protected) then into my secure drive (a different password) or my online portal (yet another password). WiFi is totally locked down, hidden, inaccessible. How is adding more "authentication" crap going to help keep anyone's stuff more secure? Answer: it won't. What makes good sense in a multi-person office, or large corporation, is simply stupid in a one-person operation and leads to the idiocy of passwords on post-it notes stuck to the side of the monitor.

It becomes more and more important to plant a medicinal herb garden...

I don't answer my home phone unless I know and like the name on caller ID. I do answer my office phone, but if there's a pause before someone speaks, I set the phone down. People answer texts, but I won't use texts for tax information or any PII. I end up texting clients to check their email or my portal or to call me, depending on the issue. Or, some will answer if I tell them to expect me to call the week of May 5th, for instance. But, calling the IRS or states or large companies or insurance companies or...!!

I am thinking about doing all my business in the "other office" down the hall, and use it exclusively, that will resolve the issue.

Absolutely agree too. No job is worth sacrificing your health. I’ve learned to pace myself, only because my time the last two years have been tied up with caregiving at home, having a 101 y/o mother 232 miles away that I need to relieve my brother every month, who is ready to shoot himself. So finding a balance to safeguard my health was imperative. I found that balance and never felt better. I hope everyone here can do the same. Congratulate yourselves, you made it!

100% agree with this.

You have to consider as well that a smaller truck cannot haul heavy trailers. I have a client that has a nice 350 that I know is occasionally used for personal stuff (hauling the boat.) But if you consider how much a loaded trailer weighs when you load a piece of equipment on it thats weighing 20,000 lbs, you need a pretty big engine to move that thing, and stop that thing. Then add a few hills or mud, then he needs a big truck. He needs to keep track of usage, but this kind of truck is basically a piece of equipment. I tell my farm and contractor clients to take pictures of the trucks hauling something heavy so when asked I can let the auditor from NYC know that this truck has a purpose.

This is me but with a bottle of Chardonnay and wearing my flannel pants and I'm never coming out.

you put your right foot in, you take your right foot out, you put your right foot in, and you shake it all about! good grief.

Okay, now we're getting silly but isn't this a fun 'relief' at this season's point?

Good thing there is a handy supply of paper right there to document your business purpose... Tom Longview, TX

Is it "ordinary and necessary" to "do your business" during working hours? Asking for another friend. Tom Longview, TX

Mine is clients that make multiple times my income but complain they can't make ends meet. When I ask if they make a budget for expenses they look at me like I'm a space alien. Of course they never have the money to make estimates or adjust W2 withholding like I suggest. Yet they think they have the money to buy an expensive new car, live in a McMansion and take extravagant trips. Two of them just this week that look large 401K distributions in 2024 with no state tax withheld and only enough FIT to cover 10% penalty. Another one with a rather large inheritance held in a trust as apparently parent realized they can't handle money. Supposedly, EJ told him he doesn't pay tax on inheritance. He can't understand me telling him he's not paying tax on the inheritance but on what it earns as shown on K1. Since they know they owe I never see them until April when my tolerance level is below zero.

Sometimes clients hear what they want to hear. If other withholding or estimates were already sufficient for 2024 to meet the safe harbor, are you sure that the previous preparer didn't really say that if they didn't pay tax on the gain during 2024 that they wouldn't have the underpayment penalty? That could be the case here, a year later, especially when a client doesn't fully understand and aren't talking with the original messenger that can revisit the conversation and information or advice she discussed.

I did that this year with one client. Couple, he thinks I'm great, she doesn't understand numbers at all and is suspicious of everything. Plus she is (only vaguely competent) trustee of five family trusts left by a parent. Royal PITA getting anything out of them except "why aren't you done yet?" queries. Told them last year - after their payment checks cleared - that they needed to find someone else for this year. When this thread of "rough season" started up I realized the entire reason this season, while hectic and full of its own upheavals, seems so much better, is because this one family went elsewhere. And yes, husband called in January, asking pretty please if I'd take them back. Told him, very politely, no.

Randall, this is so true. I was on a 2 1/2 week dive trip to Indonesia in November and continuing my 4x weekly HIIT (high intensity interval training) classes on return along with Tai Chi and Yin yoga weekly. In January a strange pain in my right leg, hip and back appeared and gradually worsened. Dr. had x-ray and cortisone shot in SI joint which seemed to help for 3 days when the left side just really hit me. The upshot is slipped SI-L5 joint with near excruciating pain and surgery on June 2 involving a lumbar 'cage', screwed in plate to stabilize the SI joints, a back brace and 6-9 months of rehab. Dr. says I probably can even get back to diving, though, despite my age. He said I seemed to be in otherwise excellent health We must never take good health for granted whether it's systemic, structural or mental.

So, the side of the printer isn't acceptable either?

I am thankful for every day that I get to open my eyes. At my age, some of that is the result of routine exams. For my husband, as well. Eight years ago, when I had breast cancer, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Both were caught very early. Last summer, I had not been breathing well for over two years before it got to be too much for me. The result was 7 days in the hospital and I am lucky to be here. The hospital Dr said that I had been sick for a long time and would have a long recovery. I am just now turning the corner and will soon be driving again for the first time since last June. I survived another tax season and am considering another one because I don't believe that my work on Earth was finished. The medical practice certainly can be annoying, but it can save your life.

Its bad enough to fill the form out online EVERY SINGLE TIME but most of the time when I get to the appointment they will ask me AGAIN if my address has changed (since I filled out the online form yesterday?) and so on. What a waste of time.

Our dentist's office is a sole proprietorship--not part of some national chain. There are two people working in the office. Yet when I call them there is a menu, "press 1 for appointments, press 2 for billing, press 3 for...." It's not like they have 16 different departments to route my call to. Grrrrrrr. Some of our clients have expressed surprise that when they call us a real person answers the phone. Sad.

First and foremost, she needs adequate errors and omissions insurance as well as regular business insurance, and a personal umbrella policy for however many millions makes sense. But in the past 30 years I've only done LLCs, which she could do and remain a sole proprietor. Whether it's worth electing to be an S corp is hard to say, but factors to consider are losing the home office deduction, paying for payroll processing and payroll tax returns, and paying for an S corp income tax return. With a service business, the IRS is going to want to see almost 100% of profit being taken as salary and not distributions.

Another moral: always owe a little bit, so you don't have to wait for your refund...

I made my own as well. Took it from the IRS prototype, changed it to meet my needs, and then made my employee/spouse read and sign it. Scanned copy in the folder somewhere - Where did I put that? Oh well, like all the 8879s that I sign that the IRS has never asked to see, I am sure I could do a search of my documents and find it if I need to. Tom Longview, TX

I wrote my own WISP; printed it and sealed it in plastic. If it's not good enough for them, so be it. I can step aside any time they want me to. And, of course, there is that unforgiving increase in the price of the program. ATX, as well and an email every other day reminding me that I should renew before the end of May. I have not even decided yet what I am going to do about next year. Pretty soon the phone calls will start.

You already received the best answer is to have client use IRS' Direct Pay. About the above statement, don't ever assume that a bank or credit union offers overdraft protection or that the account is of the type that even has that set up.

I certainly get the message and intend to do some changing. Hopefully my assistant will be on her own next year and take a good portion of my load with her. If I didn't really love this work and my clients, it wouldn't be so hard to let go, but I know that I have to. Thanks for all of the encouragement. I just noticed that the last return I filed today did not include a 1099-G that was not in her folder. I am fixing it and calling it a day.

Yes you have to take care of yourself so that you can help other people.

Ditto but it was $4 and on depreciation. Total difference on a long list of assets; he hand-calculated and I used software. Of course it made no change to tax. I later suggested he find someone closer to home and to my very great relief he did. Any engineer is a potential royal PITA client and treated (and priced) as such until such time (rare) as they prove otherwise. Engineers don't know the difference between precise and accurate. They are related but not identical. While I know the IRS truncates, I cannot stop myself from rounding "properly" - as rounding is different from truncating.

I spent an hour of my life that I will never get back debating rounding with an engineer. He wanted to know why his calculation of interest income differed by $2 from what was on his return. After I told him it was due to rounding, he asked if I rounded first, then added, or added first and then rounded. He proceeded to lecture me on why I should add all the interest first and then round. I explained how the software required that each 1099 had to be entered separately and would not allow me to enter the cents, so I had to round first. And how $2 did not change the amount of tax owed. He insisted I add $2 to his interest amount. Luckily he did not come back the next year.

Of course, those really, really special people who turn 65 on January 1, start getting the over 65 standard deduction the previous year, when they are 64 the entire year. Unless they died during the year, then they don't get the extra standard deduction. Unless they died on 12/31, in which case they do get the extra.

Our clients can spend their money foolishly. But their record-keeping better be accurate and organized, so I can make sense of what's deductible.

I may use that on a difficult meeting tomorrow!

She moved to Florida. She's probably handing out bad advice down there as we speak.

Send them back to their previous preparer Life's too short for clients like this!

I printed my client list in January. Because it's all a blur by April, anytime someone left my office and I wanted to scream, I highlighted their name. They will get a letter at the end of April saying I am no longer able to assist them. My problem is I have several families. I love Mom/Dad. I love sister/brother. But one family member is ridiculously difficult to deal with. It's been hard to figure out how to fire one and not all. My go to in the past has been to say "I no longer have the time to dedicate to a return as complicated as yours and since I want you to get the best service, please look for someone else." In my head, I'm saying "you are insufferable, and I don't like you. There is no amount of money that makes it worth it to have you sit across from me ever again and good luck finding someone like me who will put up with your $h1t." Sure. They may go out into the community and tell people I couldn't handle it. I don't care. My reputation speaks for itself and I'm not taking new clients anyway.